’50 touts’ reportedly control resale market

The boss of new blockchain-based ticketing firm Tracer claims that fewer than 50 industrial touts currently control the secondary market.

Jorge Díaz Largo, previously the vice president of product and marketing at Ticketbis, also said that the major sellers on these sites accounts for around 80-90 per cent of the revenue of such companies.

Díaz told IQ Mag: “We were naïve. We wanted to help normal people who were no longer able to go to a concert and wanted to get rid of their ticket. However, in every market we were in – the UK, France, Germany, Latin America – it was a marketplace for ticket touts, where touts controlled the tickets and set the prices.

“What [the main resale sites] aren’t saying is that almost all their inventory is controlled by no more than 50 ticket touts, who have access to millions of tickets.

“These major resellers account for 80-90 per cent of the revenue of these companies, so their main mission is to take care of the brokers – they’re the real client, not the ticket buyer – with specific people, dedicated account managers, taking care of these sellers, incentivising them to sell more, helping them get more inventory.”

DÍaz has teamed up with two other former Ticketbis execs – David Di Bartolomeo and Carmen Navarro Lado – to launch Tracer. The new firm’s goal is to create a way for artists and promoters to have control over their tickets.

He said that there should be a way for both artists and promoters to participate in the secondary industry by having transparencies of the transactions. Diaz reportedly described the secondary industry as a “lucrative business.”

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